Idaho’s Unemployment Rate Remains Below 3%
BOISE, Idaho (KLIX) – Idaho’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November is in at 2.6 percent, down slightly from October.
It’s the 15th consecutive month of it being at or below 3 percent, while the state’s labor force remains essentially unchanged since July, according to the Idaho Department of Labor.
Idaho's October unemployment rate was 2.7 percent. Nationally, the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent for November, unchanged since September.
“Year over year, the state continued to see strong job growth,” the department said on Friday. “Total nonfarm jobs grew by 1.8 percent for a total of 13,200 jobs.
Every industry sector experienced job growth except for Information, which had 600 fewer jobs this November compared with the previous year, and Leisure and Hospitality, down 800 jobs from last year. The fastest movers were the Natural Resources and Professional and Business Services sectors, with jobs increasing by 5.9 percent, closely followed by the Manufacturing sector with 4.7 percent growth.
Also of note, the department said unemployment insurance benefit payments were down 19.7 percent from a weekly average of $1,708,000 a year ago to $1,371,000 for November 2018. The number of claimants decreased by 19.8 percent to 4,500 from a weekly average of 5,700 a year ago.